Ruben Rosario: For Indian youths, lacrosse is more than a game

Talk about a meeting of the minds. The deal, if you want to call it that, was hatched over handshakes and a couple of beers 18 months ago at a watering hole in Grand Portage, Minn.

Two executives from the Minnesota Swarm pro lacrosse team were in town for a meet-and-greet with members of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council.

Veteran Minneapolis cop Clint Letch, also president of the Native American Law Enforcement Summit (NALES), had long thought about introducing lacrosse — the Creator's Game, as it is known — to at-risk youths living in Minnesota's tribal communities.

The two execs, Bret Miller and Tom Nemo, as well as the team's father-and-son owners, John and Andy Arlotta, were thinking along the same lines. The execs swarmed — pun intended — all over the 17-year cop's idea. The first "Lax-4-Life" camp was held last summer. A second is planned this year.

The kids learned about the spiritual meaning behind the game American Indians invented hundreds of years ago and how it's played today at the high school, collegiate and pro level. They also learned about the dangers of gangs, drugs, alcohol abuse, diabetes and other issues.

"These kids were amazing," said Aime Caines, an assistant Swarm coach and former pro player who instructed at the camp. "In all of the camps I've ever done, especially with beginners, these kids picked up the sport the fastest.

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Nearly 30 kids from five Minnesota and western Wisconsin tribal communities took part in the four-day camp at the Fond du Lac reservation near Cloquet. Sports suppliers Bite Tech and Under Armour contributed equipment and shirts.

A TRIP TO ST. PAUL

The youths were treated to a practice session and festivities before the Swarm's Jan. 8 home opener at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. It was the first time they had taken in a pro game. Halftime featured a traditional demonstration of how the game was initially played. Today's game more resembles hockey on grass or Astroturf.

The old-school way, played for spiritual reasons as well as to settle tribal disputes and help people heal, sometimes involved more than 1,000 players on opposing sides. There were no pads, no goalies and few rules. A rock, tree or post had to be struck by the ball in order to score. The game was played from sunup to sundown, and the field of play could stretch from 80 yards to five miles.

I was at Xcel, and I can tell you the smiles from the kids and parents taking part in all this were brighter than the lights inside the arena.

"This is pretty great," said Tony Killspotted, 16, who lives on the Mille Lacs reservation in central Minnesota.

"We wanted these kids to know about the game and that they can be leaders of their communities instead of being leaders of gangs," said Letch, who grew up in Burnsville and is part Cherokee. "Their willingness to lead may save many lives down the road."

A New York-based film crew was in town to shoot the kids and the practice for a documentary on tribal youths across the United States. Meanwhile, tribal communities that sent kids to the camp are interested in forming a unified American
Indian lacrosse youth team to participate in the Indigenous Games. The four-day event will take place this summer in Milwaukee.

MAKING THE CASE

Talk about a win-win — sports, cultural heritage, crime prevention, making healthy choices all rolled into one. But the effort wasn't exactly embraced at the beginning.

"The reaction was mixed," acknowledged Bryan "Bear" Bosto, a community center youth director and member of the Fond du Lac band. "People were saying that it was not going to work. But it was the interest in the kids themselves that brought the people in."

At the practice, Darrell Shingobe spoke about the youth effort with as much passion as President Barack Obama about health care reform. And he didn't need a teleprompter. Shingobe, a Mille Lacs youth worker, has seen firsthand the loss of youths to violence, gangs and conditions not of their choosing.

"There's a lot of crimes and there are lots of youth who are dying, a lot of terrible things going on, at the time the camp was happening," he said. "There was a horrific tragedy of a youth who passed away violently.

"But that part of it, the cultural identity and the preservation part, was tremendous," Shingobe added. "I saw young men maturing, congratulating each other, accepting the old sports adage that it is what is in front of your jersey and not what's on the back that matters. The Swarm, NALES, Clint — they all brought something to the table that was very emotional to me and everyone else."

Another key camp instructor was Travis Hill, 28, a top-rated Swarm defensive player and full-blooded Tuscarora from southern Ontario. Hill, a six-year pro, played Division I lacrosse at Canisius College in Buffalo, N.Y.

He grew up in lacrosse's epicenter, that region of the northeastern U.S-Canadian border where kids grew up "with a lacrosse stick in one hand and a hockey stick in the other."

He was not surprised that nearly all the kids at the Minnesota reservation camp knew little, if anything, about lacrosse — Canada's official national summer sport — or its American Indian origins.

But "once they had the sticks in their hands, it just came naturally for them," Hill said. "It's in their blood."

Letch gave a Knute Rockne-type speech before a crowd of players, parents and others who crowded a small locker room near the Minnesota Wild dressing room.

"We did not want to be a one-pony show that goes to your community — 'Hey, look how great we are' — and boom, we leave," Letch said. "We are here for the long run, but you guys have to do the same. You guys have to believe in yourselves.

"Make healthy choices," he said. "Keep eating right. Stay away from alcohol and using tobacco in a bad way. If you keep making good choices, we will make good choices along with you. You have my word on that."

Now, "bump hips" — the native way to describe this game, one that traditionally is far more about life than sport.